18 th September

SIENA

Out of the ?port-a-loo hotel? to regret it straight away because the hotel hunt around the centre did not yield any results at all. Lost an hour when I thought of phoning one of the hotels we checked the day before. Portable phones are really useful sometimes because we made it. (I also have to add that we were unable to leave our rucksacks at the station in the morning because of terrorist fears and were more than eager to dump them in some hotel room instead)
Hotel MINERVA is my recommendation, but try before 11 a.m. Simple, pleasant rooms, some with balconies with views towards the old town. Decent price, good service and a 10 min walk to centre.
Ekkehard escaped as soon as possible from us to do some painting in the hills and we had a walk around the back streets, located a very nice local Osteria, visited the Cathedral and it?s amazing marble floors were I – obviously –performed another MARBLE ARCH roll with the help of Phil and to the consternated looks of the queue of tourists ??. Hope all this is on tape??

Made it just in time to for Simon & Phil to catch their train to Pisa, after recovering their rucksack?s at the hotel. I went back and did some ( a lot) of washing, a quick siesta before meeting with Ekkehard on the Piazza del Campo, where some children were playing football in front of the Torre del Mangia and the municipal building. Nice to see that some things like this still go on once the flock of tourists have moved on and off.

I really like Siena and would like to go back for a bit longer out season for a bit longer and slightly better prepared.